I am writing under the impression of a recent article about building a career in IT, which I really liked and deeply touched. I believe that everything written there is an infallible truth, and extrapolated to the absolute majority of domestic outsourcing companies.









Why do I think I know something about this? Maybe nothing at all - for those who wish, under the footnote, my brief biography, judge for yourself.



Why did I decide to compare the management with the zone? As in mathematics, any theorem is well tested on the limiting conditions. To better understand the behavior of any law, x tend to zero or to infinity - the properties of the formula are better and more visible. So here, in extremely extreme conditions, people deprived of their freedom, in conditions deliberately created by savory ones, human relations are much more clearly visible, and the model of society, like human nature, is, to my conviction, about the same everywhere - only in such conditions it is much more pronounced.

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In the zone

I myself, thank God, was not attracted, but some of the orders of the red zones had been heard. There are four suits on the zone, I would like to briefly talk about two of them - the suit of “goats” and the suit of “men”.



The peasant does not differ from the majority of the rest of the prisoners — he does the work, observes the schedule, and therefore enjoys a certain respect both among the peasants and among other stripes.



The goat, as a rule, induces the so-called “goat movement” (I immediately apologize to the respected habra community for such low expressions on this resource). These are, in particular, actions that the administration itself disdains - knocking out the necessary testimony from the convict, conducting "quarantine", the execution of additional punishments not provided for by the detention regime, etc. That is, in fact, the goats perform for the employees of the institution all the dirty work for some kind of concessions that the administration gives them - for example, a free schedule of movement in the zone, the opportunity to play sports, additional visits, etc.



Needless to say that most ordinary prisoners hate such a caste? Approximately the same as ordinary soldiers dislike corporals, only much stronger. But do convicts hate the guards themselves? Not. Everyone understands that it is their job, that they are completely different people, that they should do it. Soldiers calmly refer to the performance of their duties by the officer corps, if such an example is closer to someone.



You ask, how does this compare with management?

In management

Rising from programmers to managers, in the eyes of others, you become almost a goat. Naturally, most likely no one will threaten you, the orders are not the same - all civilized people, IT specialists. But the feelings do not change. No one will be angry with the founder of the company - it is obvious to everyone that everything is his, he is in his place, this is an ordinary “boss-slave” relationship.



However, you are not the case. Everyone, even the juniors who came yesterday, have a good idea of ​​the device of the outsourcing company - much has been written about this, and modern students read a lot of such articles on our website and other specialized resources. And if the owner in a well-established business works for profit and performs, in fact, a rather pleasant job - gets new customers, honors the processes of working with top managers, travels to Europe and America (if you still do not live there) - then you work for crumbs from this profit. And you do the dirty work - you are always the last in case of accidents, and your subordinates and your superiors ask you, it is you who have to sit on long rallies with sometimes inadequate clients, write hundreds of letters to them and carry out 10 more varieties of the most routine work.



Writing code, even of the viewer itself, in comparison with this is a fascinating process! And you are stuck in a plateau, losing qualifications, moving away from direct development.



What do you often get from this? As a rule, in small and medium outsourcing + 20% of the salary of a programmer working on the same project. If I were again offered a job as a manager, and if I had such a desire, I would consider the following criteria:



1. Have I reached the ceiling of the developer’s salary growth rate according to my specialization? If not, then you should not even think about leaving for management.

2. I am offered a salary with a fixed salary, or my income depends on other factors, such as the number of subordinates or the percentage of the project balance? If not, this is a very stupid exchange. + 20% salary incomparable with what you lose. The salary itself is demotivating, management is already something like a business, and a businessman should think in terms of income, not wages. If you sell something so important, sell it expensive .

3. What is the budget for the project that I am offered to lead? Never agree to lead low-cost projects, for the manager it is a headache. You will never be given the best programmers. You will never be allocated a business analyst; you will work for it. It will be much more difficult for you to find compromises with customers.



With a positive answer to all these three questions, you may need to think about this proposal. But clearly be aware that at first you will be seen by an upstart and a careerist - especially until the generation with which you came to the company and engaged in pair programming has not changed. For them, you will never be yours.



PS I thought and decided to add a question for modern students.